IT had been a bad couple of weeks.
Our budgie Pigwidgeon had died on May 14. Over the summer of 2006 he'd begun developing black marks on his beak and claws, and his beak began to grow rapidly. He also had a black growth on one leg and under his lower beak. Budgies are disposed to cancer and I'm pretty sure it is what he had. The vet, however, thought it might be a liver problem and gave me special liver food for him, but he never got a chance to eat it. I came home the afternoon of the 14th and found he had passed over the Rainbow Bridge.
Since we'd talked to Jerry in April we had been looking occasionally for Webkinz at Hallmark shops, but at that point the stores were cleaned out of them. If they had critters left, they were tree frogs. Sorry to be a "mammal snob," but I'm not much of an amphibian person. :-) I had cruised the website to see what they offered, and of all the different animals I really wanted the white terrier, but nary a terrier did we find.
James had worked one day last weekend and was off today. About mid-afternoon he phoned me and said, "I'm at Hobbytown. They have pugs and tree frogs. Do you want a pug?"
I'm not much of a pug person, either, although Kristi and Kelly's two pugs are quite appealing. But it was a temptation: "Oh, why not? Sure."
Once home from work I found this little fellow on my computer desk. James had also bought himself a pug (I guess neither of us are tree frog people), which he had named "Shahak."
I took a literary track and named mine "Weenie" after Eloise's little pug, except that to tell the pugs apart I put a ribbon on mine and called it a girl.
With the code attached to Weenie's leg, I entered the Webkinz world.
The Open Door
